Loyalties
by AuroraMichelle
Summary: Sakura must choose between a new life and her old one. A/N. For those of you now gnashing your teeth in frustration of such an undescriptive and unhelpful summary, I'm purposefully keeping it vague-I'm usually the last person to know where my stories end up going. Don't worry, they always come back. Rated M for language.


_Oh, fuck!_

Sakura tucked and rolled across the rocky terrain, narrowly avoiding the fireball that roared across the open air to greet her. She watched in disbelief as it slammed into the rock that had been directly behind her head.

_He really aimed that…at my face!_

Her eye twitched.

"What the hell, Kakashi? You invited me over for a little _light sparring_, if I remember correctly!"

She watched from a rather undignified sprawl on the uneven ground as he popped his head out from a nearby boulder.

"Just keeping you on your toes. As your former mentor, it _is _my duty to do so," he replied innocently.

Sakura grumbled as she instinctively slunk into a defensive crouch. Kakashi looked altogether a little too smug for her liking. She supposed this was his form of payback for finally besting him at his Bell Challenge. So she cheated a little, so what? Being a shinobi meant taking advantage of an opponent's weakness, even if it w_as_ for a certain smutty book series, it wasn't like—

A cold metal pressing against her throat effectively interrupted her inner tirade.

"And, as your former mentor, I feel obligated to warn you not leave yourself so open. If I so wished, you would be dead," said a mild voice from somewhere behind and above her. Sakura cursed her inner self's ADHD as she saw the clone-Kakashi in front of her poof into non-existence.

…_Shit…He's pretty pissed about the whole distract-him-by-revealing-the-plot-of-his-favorite-book-so-naruto-and-I-could-grab-the-bells strategy, isn't he? And now he's extracting his revenge. Naruto's away on a mission, so you get the full brunt of his wrath. Good job, Sakura. Maybe on the way home you can piss off _another_ ANBU level shinobi and see if he and Kakashi can't join forces to kick your ass to the moon and back._

She tilted her head back ever so slowly until she was staring into his one showing eye. Realizing the absolute nonexistence of the possibility of escape from the predicament she was in, she switched strategies. He watched with vague interest as her mouth twisted up into what she hoped was her most winning smile.

"Yeah, yeah…all right, Kakashi. You got me. Will you let me up now? I kinda have to get back to the hospital soon."

The kunai lingered at her throat for a moment before disappearing back up the jounin's sleeve. He relaxed into a slouch and stuck out a hand to her.

_He fell for it…_

Sakura bit back the slightly maniacal grin that threatened to crawl over her face and calmly grasped his calloused but warm hand. She swung to her feet and steadied herself, but didn't release her soft hold on his hand. A moment sauntered by. Subtle creasings and furrows about the eye and beneath the folds of a mask heralded the dawn of surprise, followed swiftly by the high noon of utter bewilderment. She watched his eyes flicker down to their still interlocked fingers, and took her chance.

_Gotcha, bitch!_

In one swift move, she yanked Kakashi toward her by his hand and spun around to greet him with a chakra-enhanced kick to the chest. He disentangled his fingers from hers and jumped away at the last second, but not before catching a glancing blow to the ribs. He skidded backwards, clutching his side.

"Oi…that's foul play, Sakura," he managed to wheeze out, climbing to his feet.

"Just keeping you on your toes," she threw back sweetly. "What's the matter, Kakashi, getting too old? I'm sure Hokage-sama has a filing job open if—"

She deftly caught the kunai he half-heartedly sent her way, and smirked triumphantly. Kakashi, narrowing his eye dangerously, was looking distinctly unamused. She decided to push her luck.

"So how old are you, anyway, Kakashi-sensei? You must be getting up there, age-wise…Just let me know when I need to start whittling a cane for you."

"Har har," Kakashi deadpanned, "Rematch. No tricks."

"No promises, old man."


End file.
